popsicleian
Well-Known Member
I do it occasionally--the keys for me are to prepare the water beforehand, have all ingredients on hand, limit batch size to 3 gallons (makes a huge difference in time to strike temp and time to boil), and do no-chill.
Brewing on a Weeknight
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If you brew when you can, you can drink when you want.
Brewed 6 gallons or so of Munich Helles last night. Got home about 4:00, finished calculating water, then milled grains and got started. Had to make/eat dinner in there somewhere and family outvoted me to watch a second episode of Brooklyn 99, so it went longer than I hoped, what with the 90 minute mash and 90 minute boil.
Got to bed about 11:00 after pitching yeast and washing everything up. Still not a bad brewday considering that I often go to bed about that time anyway.
I think a Bo Pils is on my agenda for next time. I will have to find some suitable hops for that one, but then I'm all set. I'd like to ferment both batches together.
Got to bed about 11:00 after pitching yeast and washing everything up. Still not a bad brewday considering that I often go to bed about that time anyway.
I think a Bo Pils is on my agenda for next time. I will have to find some suitable hops for that one, but then I'm all set. I'd like to ferment both batches together.
This always seemed crazy to me, but seeing what you guys have said here was encouraging. I tried this for the first time Wednesday night.
I usually don't get home until 7 or so. But I've got 3.5 year old twins at home and my wife has to work late maybe 4-6 times a month. I leave early those days to get the kids and usually get home around 5. I figured I'd give it a try on one of those days.
My criteria for success included not only getting to bed at a reasonable hour but also not completely neglecting the children. Also, I did not want to neglect other routine nightly chores, like picking up mess or doing the dishes. I also kept my plan a secret to see if I could do it without SWMBO even knowing. Not nefariously, just because that would mean it was really unobtrusive.
I weighed, measured, and organized the night before. I did not crush my grain, because there was a decent chance I would have to abort for one reason or another. Next time, I would crush in advance, too.
5:08 - Fired up HLT; Sent kids outside to play; Milled grain; set up chiller; played with kids.
5:38 - Mash in and messed around with ice to hit the right temp; Fed and bathed children.
7ish - Let kids watch a TV show; Start sparging; wash dishes and tidy up house while MLT drains;
--super slow sparge. I use a corona mill and though I usually condition my malt, I didn't this time. Cereal Killer arrives today!
8 - heat BK
815pm - throw in 60 min addition; read to kids; put kids to bed; transfer previous beer from fermenter to keg; tidied up more.
915 pm - start cooling.
9:30 - Pitch; start clean up; wife comes home around this time.
10:08 - head to bed earlier than usual.
Even though my wife was home before I was done cleaning, she just thought I was putzing around with various beer related things, as I tend to do after the kids go to bed. In the morning I told her I brewed a beer and she was very surprised.
Getting everything sorted out the night before makes all the difference. It left me without any real tasks to accomplish during the mash or boil, which left me plenty of time to give attention to the kids. Had I crushed my grains in advance, it would have been even better. The only negative was that I plopped the kids in front of the TV a bit longer than I would have liked. But again, a quicker sparge would have fixed that. If they misbehaved things could have gone haywire, but I staved that off by setting up an ice cream reward for good behavior right away. It also occurred to me that if I ran out of propane I would have been SOL. I wasn't going to take the kids on a 7pm propane run.
It really couldn't have worked out better. I might start doing this regularly to free up my weekends. That's particularly important now that golf season is coming around.
I usually don't get home until 7 or so. But I've got 3.5 year old twins at home and my wife has to work late maybe 4-6 times a month. I leave early those days to get the kids and usually get home around 5. I figured I'd give it a try on one of those days.
My criteria for success included not only getting to bed at a reasonable hour but also not completely neglecting the children. Also, I did not want to neglect other routine nightly chores, like picking up mess or doing the dishes. I also kept my plan a secret to see if I could do it without SWMBO even knowing. Not nefariously, just because that would mean it was really unobtrusive.
I weighed, measured, and organized the night before. I did not crush my grain, because there was a decent chance I would have to abort for one reason or another. Next time, I would crush in advance, too.
5:08 - Fired up HLT; Sent kids outside to play; Milled grain; set up chiller; played with kids.
5:38 - Mash in and messed around with ice to hit the right temp; Fed and bathed children.
7ish - Let kids watch a TV show; Start sparging; wash dishes and tidy up house while MLT drains;
--super slow sparge. I use a corona mill and though I usually condition my malt, I didn't this time. Cereal Killer arrives today!
8 - heat BK
815pm - throw in 60 min addition; read to kids; put kids to bed; transfer previous beer from fermenter to keg; tidied up more.
915 pm - start cooling.
9:30 - Pitch; start clean up; wife comes home around this time.
10:08 - head to bed earlier than usual.
Even though my wife was home before I was done cleaning, she just thought I was putzing around with various beer related things, as I tend to do after the kids go to bed. In the morning I told her I brewed a beer and she was very surprised.
Getting everything sorted out the night before makes all the difference. It left me without any real tasks to accomplish during the mash or boil, which left me plenty of time to give attention to the kids. Had I crushed my grains in advance, it would have been even better. The only negative was that I plopped the kids in front of the TV a bit longer than I would have liked. But again, a quicker sparge would have fixed that. If they misbehaved things could have gone haywire, but I staved that off by setting up an ice cream reward for good behavior right away. It also occurred to me that if I ran out of propane I would have been SOL. I wasn't going to take the kids on a 7pm propane run.
It really couldn't have worked out better. I might start doing this regularly to free up my weekends. That's particularly important now that golf season is coming around.
WestMichBrewer
Well-Known Member
I agree that getting as much prepared the night before is key. It doesn't seem like there is that much to do, but if you can get home and kick off heating your strike water first thing, that's going to save you a lot of time right there.
I usually just let my wort finish cooling and stabilizing at pitch temp overnight then pitch in the morning too.
Maybe you can cheat on some of the cleanup and get that done the next day.
I usually just let my wort finish cooling and stabilizing at pitch temp overnight then pitch in the morning too.
Maybe you can cheat on some of the cleanup and get that done the next day.
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GJOCONNELL
Well-Known Member
Tried this once it was a bad idea....I was cooling wort down @ midnight my wife was NOT AMUSED.....
Yes! 30min mashes and 30 min boils can really help cut the time down as well. Adjust your recipe accordingly. I've been doing these for a few months now with fantastic results. I combine this with BIAB and I can go end-to-end in just over 2hrs.
Ditto. I did a 10 gallon batch in 2.5 hours. Got the main things cleaned and the rest soaking.
My days off are usually week days so it is the same as if it was a weekend day. I try to get things going by 11am and completely done by 5 or so PM.
That's what it took me. I I don't know about you but I usually don't go to bed until 10 of 11, so starting at 5 or 6 worked for me.
I use a really well insulated cooler as a mash tun, so sometimes I'll either mash overnight or run home on my lunch break from work and heat my mash water and mash during lunch. Then when I come home one of the most time consuming parts is already finished. It works pretty well. Brewing in a bag with no sparge or just dunk sparging saves time and cleanup too, or you could even mash in your boil vessel if you have enough space. You could also even mash for 30 minutes instead of an hour.
I actually brewed every night for a week after work once just to see if I could do it along with the 50Gal of brew needing to get trucked to NJ for an event (which was a smash hit with my beer!).
I was brewing the same 2 beers that week..2 10Gal batches of an IPA and 3 10 Gal of my house blonde.
It was a LOONG week. I got home about 5:30pm and was brewing until around 11pm. After post-brew clean-up, I was in bed by 1am. It was certainly a learning experience and by Friday nights brew session, I was dead on my feet but I had an absolute blast doing it as my family and neighbors all came over to help..it became sort of a "thing" in the neighborhood that week. lol
It also gave me the confidence that if I ever did go pro on a small scale level, I could brew 2-3 times a week after work without a problem.
I was brewing the same 2 beers that week..2 10Gal batches of an IPA and 3 10 Gal of my house blonde.
It was a LOONG week. I got home about 5:30pm and was brewing until around 11pm. After post-brew clean-up, I was in bed by 1am. It was certainly a learning experience and by Friday nights brew session, I was dead on my feet but I had an absolute blast doing it as my family and neighbors all came over to help..it became sort of a "thing" in the neighborhood that week. lol
It also gave me the confidence that if I ever did go pro on a small scale level, I could brew 2-3 times a week after work without a problem.
